“The children have fun, (and) they are encouraged to learn,” she said. “The big part is finding innovative solutions while working together.”

All the teams have at least one adult coach.

“The coach’s approach is very hands-off,” she said. “They keep them on track and support their ideas.”

Gullo was part of the Queen Creek robotics team while in high school and later started a nonprofit organization to help children form teams.

One of the teams Gullo helped start dubbed themselves The Eggheads.

The Eggheads are one of two Queen Creek community teams and has six members, five of whom had never participated in a Lego League.

The team developed a “bottom booster,” a pillow that helps senior citizens stand up.

The children have worked on the solution since August.

Adriana Baniecki, 9, said she was happy with the results.

“It is so exciting when you see that your mission is complete and you think, ‘Yay! It actually works,’” she said.

Their mentor, 14-year-old Danny Estrada, had some experience with robotics. His team went on to the state championship last year.

“I help them clear things up, especially if they don’t know how to program something,” he said.

The Eggheads had two adult coaches. Darcy Christianson helped them with their research and teamwork, while Steve Parkhurst guided them through the programming.

The community team formed after Christianson saw a sign at the Queen Creek Library.

The members of The Eggheads all go to different schools and did not know each other before working together.

“One of the first things we had to really work on was them getting to know each other,” Christianson said. “We even had a field trip.”

To show team spirit and cooperation, the Eggheads handed out “egg fortunes,” plastic eggs with candy and a handmade fortune that read, “Have an eggcelent day,” inside.

The Eggheads did not qualify for the state championship but plan to try again next year.
Correction: An earlier version of this story gave mentor Danny Estrada's name as Danny Trujillo and mispelled Matt Thiem's name. It has been updated to reflect the correct information.

Reach the reporter at dpbaltaz@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @dpalomabp